My Extraordinary Easter Dinner With A Muslim Family From One Of The Poorest Cities In Egypt

When a man I met on Friday invited me to his family's home for
Sunday dinner, it was an uncommon offer. When the invitation
turned out to be in Dar el-Salam, one of Egypt's most poverty
stricken areas, Easter afternoon turned into a once-in-lifetime
affair.

The road to Dar el-Salam is dirt and a crest of smoldering refuse
lines the middle of it, picked over by cats, dogs, burros, kids,
and collectors trying to bring home any money they can.

It took four attempts to find a cab driver willing to take us.
When we arrived, the man who invited me, Hani, sat with a group
of 10 or so other men at an outdoor cafe. A small part of the
local mafia family, he said he'd grown up beside them and they
specialized in "whatever makes them money."

From what I could tell their enterprise includes drugs and theft,
but whatever it is offers them neighborhood wide-respect. They
took me to a place I couldn't have imagined and perhaps no one
from the outside could have gone without a personal escort from
them, definitely not an American with two big noisy cameras.

Back through the dusty, narrow alleys, past broken-down billiard
tables shoved into mud brick rooms, haphazard grocery stores, and
untold apartments, we came to a dead end.

A massive bed of gravel and rock led to a sheer cliff wall and
the skeletal remains of apartments destroyed by the last rock
slide.

The families whose homes they took me into were unlike anything
I'd ever seen, and far hiding the situation they were in, the
residents let me stomp into their home because they wanted to let
the world know how they lived. They'd appreciate a bit of help
from the new government, just picking up the trash would be a
nice start, they said.

I've yet to meet someone happy with the results of the revolution
and these people were no different. Their neighborhood started to
slide about eight years ago, and has gotten dramatically worse in
the past couple of years. Water bills have nearly doubled, rents
have gone up and incomes way down.

One Muslim family of seven sleeping in a subterranean room
invited us to stay for Easter dinner. An incredibly gracious
offer we had to decline, as we made our way to Hani's father's
apartment.

Dinner was on the table when we arrived. A big plate of French
fries and a new bottle of Ketchup sat before the seat of honor,
the middle of the couch where I was directed.

There's just enough to get by on now, barely. When people like
this can no longer feed their kids, they'll have nothing to lose.
Already they pine for the days of former president Mubarak.

Here are a few pictures from the visit. I'll post a longer
feature on the experience next week.

They did not have much,
but they were all smiles and offering to
share.Robert Johnson/Business
Insider

Washroom off the
kitchenRobert Johnson/Business
Insider

StairsRobert Johnson/Business Insider

Without enough money,
women are forced to share the same space as the
menRobert Johnson/Business
Insider

Easter dinner, with French
fries and Ketchup for the first American they've
metRobert Johnson/Business
Insider

And then power went off,
my host said it's because president Morsi is selling electricity
to Gaza. And charging 30 percent more than it cost under the
former president.Robert
Johnson/Business Insider